Configuration

.atipspec/config.yaml, written by init:

name: shop
language: es
approve_plan: true
review_rounds: 3
context_budget: 800
strict_scope: true
criteria_syntax: ears
strict_criteria: true
max_requirements: 5
max_tasks: 8
max_age_hours: 8
trust: optional
require_proof: false
require_isolated_review: false
exempt_paths: []

Key	Default	Meaning
name	folder name	project name, shown by status
language	en	language the model writes artifacts in; en, es and pt also drive the criterion lint, the section names the parser accepts and the acceptance dossier. Another code works with the English tables, and audit says so
approve_plan	true	legacy deliveries only: atipspec build refuses until the plan's own approval is recorded (accept <slug> plan). A guided delivery approves its plan with the proposal, whatever this says
review_rounds	3	how many reviews a delivery gets per approved agreement, the first included, whatever the reviews said; the outputs say review N of M. atipspec review and atipspec run count them and stop once they are used up; less one, it is also the default and the most --max-rounds allows. A guided proposal's approval covers it; in a legacy delivery no approval does. See review rounds
context_budget	800	lines; atipspec context warns above it
strict_scope	true	a plan must declare its scope, and globs that together match every path (**, **/*, * with */**) declare none; a changed file outside it is an error. With false, a file outside a declared scope is a warning and an empty scope is allowed
criteria_syntax	ears	ears reports criterion statements that do not start with a trigger or carry a shall; free turns only that check off
strict_criteria	true	the strict specification checks are errors and block the proposal: the EARS form, vague terms in requirements, criteria and scenario steps, and the number in a quality attribute's criterion. With false they are warnings. The advice on concrete values and measurement methods is a warning either way; see writing criteria
max_requirements	5	check warns when a spec has more requirements: a delivery should fit in a working day
max_tasks	8	check warns when a plan has more tasks
max_age_hours	8	check, status and the dossier warn when a delivery's lead time is longer than this: wall-clock hours from its creation (created, written by new) to the acceptance of its result, or to now until then. A warning, never a block
require_proof	false	true: every criterion under Tests: needs a Proof: entry naming its test, and the verification that runs it a Report:; a missing one is an error that blocks the proposal. A trust policy can set it too, and then the project cannot turn it off. See build
require_isolated_review	false	true: a review with session: shared, or none, is an error instead of a warning, as it already is for risk: high. A trust policy can set it too
trust	optional	required: the project needs an external trust policy. Without one, check and merge-check are red, accept refuses every local form but contract, deliver refuses and run does not start; proposal shows no local code. merge-check applies it when the head, the target branch or the merge base sets it, so a branch cannot drop it for its own merge, even one forked before it
exempt_paths	[]	globs of files outside .atipspec/ that a branch may change with no delivery covering them, such as ["docs/**", "*.md"]: ** crosses directories, * and ? do not. merge-check reads them from the target branch's config.yaml (the --base revision), never from the branch it judges, so a branch cannot exempt its own changes, and warns on a branch that changes them. The user decides it. No approval hashes it. See merge-check
system	unset	path to a checkout of the system repository. atipspec new pins its contract.md, and its glossary.md when it has one, at the checkout's current commit in the guided delivery's contracts.json, and that delivery's context reads them from there; legacy deliveries read the checkout as it is. See several repositories

Only name and language are managed by atipspec init; edit the rest by hand. init --language en on an existing project keeps the other keys.

Every command but init validates the policies first and stops with Invalid .atipspec/config.yaml: <key> must be ...: booleans are true or false, numbers are positive whole numbers (max_age_hours may have a fraction, such as 7.5), criteria_syntax is ears or free, trust is optional or required, exempt_paths is a list of globs. A key left out takes its default.

Defaults apply only where a key is missing. Projects created before 0.3.0 have strict_scope: false, strict_criteria: false and max_age_hours: 48 written out and keep them; audit notes the first two, and install --update lists every policy that differs from this version's defaults without editing the file. config.yaml, all but exempt_paths, is part of what a guided proposal's approval hashes: change it when no guided delivery is between its proposal and its result, or present those proposals again.

.atipspec/teams.json

Optional, written by hand: the refs the team board reads, the owners of each capability, the other repositories contracts are pinned from, the integration branch and the address of the ticket tracker. See team configuration. A guided proposal's approval hashes only the owners of its capability and integration, so adding refs, repositories or ticket_url voids no approval.

.atipspec/adapter.json

Optional, written by hand: the process adapter atipspec run calls, as {"schema": 1, "name": ..., "command": [...], "isolated_review": false}. The command is an argv array, not shell code. A guided proposal's approval hashes the file. See the execution adapter.

.atipspec/.gitignore

Created by init; ignores tmp/, where review packets are written and where a plan's JUnit Report: belongs, such as .atipspec/tmp/junit.xml. Everything else under .atipspec/ is meant to be committed: the contract, the living specs, the deliveries with their evidence and reviews, the archive.

.claude/settings.json

Written or merged by init and install when Claude Code is a client: ask rules for Bash(*atipspec accept *) and for Edit on .github/workflows/**, .gitlab-ci.yml and .claude/settings*.json, and deny rules for Edit on the approval, evidence, review round (review-rounds.json) and archive records. Every other key and entry is kept. See approval permission rules.

Environment

Variable	Effect
NO_COLOR	disables colors in the terminal output
TERM=dumb	same
ATIPSPEC_TRUST_POLICY	path of the external trust policy; every command uses it, as --policy does (see organization trust)
ATIPSPEC_POLICY_SHA256	the SHA-256 the policy must have, as --policy-sha256
ATIPSPEC_PR_NUMBER	the pull request a policy in provider mode reads, as --number
GITHUB_TOKEN, GITLAB_TOKEN	read-only tokens of the provider adapters, on the protected worker only; verify removes them, the SSH agent and the CI job and OIDC tokens from the commands it runs
CLAUDECODE, CODEX_SANDBOX, CODEX_THREAD_ID, COPILOT_CLI, CURSOR_AGENT, GEMINI_CLI, AI_AGENT	set by coding agents; accept never records channel terminal while one is set, nor client-permission while one names an agent other than Claude Code (values 0, false, no and off are ignored)
CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT	set by Claude Code; sdk-ts and sdk-py (the Agent SDK) and sdk-cli (claude -p) make accept record channel assistant

Organization trust

Local project settings guide the assistant; they cannot relax trusted acceptance. approve_plan: false skips a legacy delivery's plan approval, not the trusted engineering approval requirement. The external TOML policy controls roles, public keys, corporate rules and provider identities. It must live outside the candidate. Its require_proof and require_isolated_review add to the project's: the gate applies a requirement when either sets it to true. Its optional integration, a full ref name such as refs/remotes/origin/main, names the branch whose history counts as integrated, so that what a delivery takes in from it is not the delivery's change in check, the review packet and the dossier; under a policy, teams.json's integration names no branch, though approvals still hash it. See when main moves. In provider mode (GitHub only), its [attestation] block names the trusted evidence workflow, signer_workflow, in another repository of the same organization, and pins its commit, signer_digest; a policy without them does not load. See two trust modes.

ATIPSPEC_TRUST_POLICY selects that policy; ATIPSPEC_POLICY_SHA256 pins its contents. Use protected organization configuration, not project-provided values. GitHub/GitLab adapters use read-only GITHUB_TOKEN / GITLAB_TOKEN in the trusted collector. The verification runner removes those credentials from command environments. See enterprise acceptance.